Picket Report San Francisco Org 83 MaCallister Street, Thursday Mar 27,97

Hi Everyone,

Today I arrived at 12:00 and stayed until 3:15P (when the wind became too much for my picket sign). One of the reasons I decided to picket this Thursday was because I was curious to see if staff still went into their 'feeding frenzy' for stats the way they used to when I was still involved.

Last year when I picketed the S.F. Org during the week about 20 public and staff came out at noontime for lunch, today ONLY 6 came out. From this observation it's starting to look (at least to me) that all this negative publicity that $cientology has been getting recently is REALLY starting to hurt their membership. My presence out there certainly cannot be helping them any.

Today (as usual) I had quite a few people who have never EVEN heard of scientology come up to me and ask me about the organization. Two women walking by became intrigued by my sign and came up to me to ask me about $cientology. After I explained to them what it was all about they then walked up to one of the posters in the window (the one with a picture of LRH) to read what it had to say. This time I followed them. I have to admit that this act of following them was kind of a thrill for me. With this act I was entering the 'forbidden zone'. This is where staff have indicated to me that I was NOT allowed to picket. I did it anyway.

Me and these women then talked for quite some time right in front of $cientology's front window. After we were done talking these women then started to walk away. They then suddenly turned around and hurried back to me. They did this to inform me that two guys standing by the Orgs' front door were actually undercover cops. A few minutes earlier when I was talking to these women I sort of noticed those guys but since I was talking THEM I didn't pay too much attention to everyone around us. (I always put my full attention on the people I am talking to instead of the environment.)

I thought the fact the fact that these guys were undercover cops (if in fact they WERE undercover cops) a bit strange. At this point, however, I consider this to be just a coincidence. I've had patrol cars park in the parking lot right next door and cops on bicycles stop right near the Org's front door all while I've been out there. Since I've made sure that the police already know WHO I am, WHAT I'm doing out there, and WHY I'm doing what I'm doing I don't consider these women's warning to be of any significance.

Today was definitely a fun day (except for the wind). I even had my picture taken by a young German couple. The guy taking my picture had green hair almost the color of my sign. He was so cool! I've had my picture taken by some tourist at least once every other week, sometimes twice in a single day. Because of this sometimes I feel like a movie star out there.

The San Francisco Org is DEFINITELY a 'happening' place. I get LOTS of foot and car traffic out there. I never know who's going to wander by and zero in on me or what's going to happen.

Wayne Whitney (a concerned citizen)